Friday, 11 October 2013

PARTNERS IN CRIME

PARTNERS IN CRIME is now 10 years old so it is particularly pleasing and surprising that
it has just been shortlisted for a prize. It is in the Quick Reads category of
the Coventry Inspiration Book Award. The award is for books which will get
readers hooked on reading.The
Coventry awards
are unique in the country in that they have something for all ages, including
adults and involve the whole family and the whole community.

I guess that I
always write in the hope that the book will hook young readers and make them
readers for life, but this is especially true for the books I write for
Barrington Stoke who specialise in producing books for young people who aren’t
naturally drawn to reading.

The Coventry award
is decided in a novel way, as in January 2014 they hold weekly eliminations of
the shortlist "Big Brother" style until only the winners are left
standing. Fingers crossed that PARTNERS
IN CRIME will be one of those.

Although PARTNERS IN CRIME does work with ‘reluctant’
readers, I recently saw how its appeal goes right across the spectrum. The book
is being used by FolkestoneAcademy as part of their
English course for all their Year 8 students. They invited me down to
talk to the whole year group and I did four sessions in which I talked about
writing in general and then PARTNERS IN CRIME in particular. I was very gratified
to see and hear the students’ enthusiasm for the book – their questions and comments showed how much they had enjoyed and been engaged by the story as part of their course and teachers reported that many of them had
borrowed the books to re-read at home.

The students
asked many interesting and wide-ranging questions in each of the sessions but
one question that came up in all four sessions was who was who on the cover. It’s
a credit to the cover designer that when I turned the question back on them and
asked them to say which character was which they unfailingly identified Marco,
Perry and Toddie.If you've read and enjoyed the book, you can vote and comment on the Coventry Inspiration site : http://www.coventry.gov.uk/info/2000735/fancy_a_quickie/2008/partners_in_crime

About Me

I have written 20 books, including the BUDDY trilogy and the four books in the BEAVER TOWERS series . Five of the books - COLLISION COURSE, THE FINDERS, OUT OF THE DARKNESS, BUDDY'S BLUES, and TIME BOMB - have won prizes. I have had a number of short stories published in various collections.
I have also written screenplays for TV and movies, and lyrics for songs, including the songs for the soundtrack of the movie BUDDY'S SONG for which I got Gold and Platinum discs. My latest songwriting project has been the nine songs for a stage adaptation of BEAVER TOWERS.
I frequently visit schools in the UK and other countries including China, Germany and Eire to give talks to pupils about writing.